In May of 2015, I met a Vietnamese girl, Sylvia, from New Jersey, that is now my wife. She was so curious about my ethnicity and background (like how I was brought up). I am jewish because of the ethnicity part, but I don’t have a religion, I’m agnostic. My dad, Alan, is a jewish person both religiously and his ethnicity. My mom, Gina, is an agnostic person with irish and english roots. My mom used to be a Christian growing up. I never learned Hebrew, went to Hebrew School, or had my bar-mitzvah. My cousins, Molly and Ian, had their bar and bat-mitzvahs growing up. I went to both of those. I never have cared that much about my ethnicity or where my ancestors are from originally. Sylvia, my Wife now, made me question these things more deeply. When we first met, I didn’t even really care enough to ask about her Vietnamese or Catholic background. She told me she was Vietnamese and I was like oh that’s cool. Later, I discovered how crazy Sylvia’s upbringing was and how she was fluent in Vietnamese before becoming fluent in English as a child. I showed empathy for how she was treated, both by her parents and people at her school growing up. We met at a Starbucks in Downtown Disney, which is in Anaheim, California. I couldn’t stop listening to her story. She told me all about her upbringing and how she became the person that she is now. I’m the second child in my family and the youngest. Sylvia is the 1st of 3 siblings in her family. Sylvia judges me still to this day because she believes that the first born always has it harder growing up and that I probably benefited from being the youngest. Sylvia is a great older sister to her siblings, Nick and Angela. Her family moved from Roseland, New Jersey to Lavine, Arizona this past year. Now, we can see them more. My sister, Sarah, is 3 years older than me and lives in North Bethesda, Maryland. We rarely see her and barely have a relationship at all anymore. From the Diversity Wheel in this module, Sylvia and I have a lot of differences. For example, I am a white and jewish guy from Los Angeles, California, and Sylvia is an Asian and Vietnamese girl from Roseland, New Jersey. I grew up a lot more wealthy than she did. We don’t really judge each other all that much. In the textbook, Community Development, Chapter 3 is about the feeling of inclusion and belonging. What Sylvia and I have in common is that we are both college students seeking our Undergraduate Degrees. In Chapter 3, it says that psychologists consider the need to fit in and belong is a real human need. I agree with the book. It is definitely hard for anyone to live a good life without a friend group or a place where they feel a sense of belonging. In Chapter 12 of the textbook, Community Development, is about being compassionate for others in the community. Sylvia and I share compassion for each other and that is one of the many reasons why our marriage works.

References:

Community Development in Leisure: Fostering Inclusion And Belonging: Chapter 3:Sharpe, E., & Whyte, C. (2016)

Community Development in Leisure: Compassionate Pedagogy For Reflexive Community Practices: Arai, S.,M., Tepylo, H. (2016)

What’s driving my interest in community development is the sports industry. I will aim to help kids in the community become more active and athletic. It’s very important to always make sure that kids get enough exercise and nutritious food. If I can help to teach kids from a young age to eat right and stay active,it will hopefully turn into a lifetime habit. I’m really going to try and help kids in the community to grow and be the best that they can be at everything in their lives. The role that I see myself having in the community is the system role. In the book, Community Development, it explains that the system role is about ensuring that networks function effectively and seeing that members of communities and groups liaise with outside individual groups and other communities (Sharpe, 2016). Figure 1.2 on page 10 in Community Development is very interesting to me. All jobs in the community that are listed on page 10 are very important roles within a community. I was torn between Process, Organization, and the System role for which one that I want to do the most. The process has the most responsibility, but the most result oriented position is the system role and that seems to be the best in my opinion. I took the VIA Character Strengths Survey Assessment and it says that my number one strength is honesty. Honesty is the most important thing in my life right now. If you can have an honest relationship with everybody, then you can depend on each other all of the time. Honesty, really in any business or community is the number one thing that there needs to be to have a successful work environment. Some of my life experiences that have really made me who I am are losing lots of my relatives and original friends. It makes you realize how short and precious life really is. You don’t take days for granted at all anymore. I always will be working for what I want in life because you only have one shot at life and I don’t know when it will end. I don’t want to have any regrets when it is the end of my life on earth. My goal for my career is to one day become a College Athletic Director in the NCAA at the Division 1 level. As an Athletic Director, I would plan to help out in the community a lot. Helping to make others’ days better. Whether it be hanging out with children, helping to build something in their neighborhood. It would help them either way. I would have the players from all of the sports for both boys and girls help out as much as they can within their community. I don’t really think about my cultural identity all that much. I will use my strengths to the best of my ability when it comes to helping my community or really just anyone that needs it. I will start my goal by getting an entry-level sports job that I can build on in the future. I will have an entry-level sports job by the time I graduate ASU in May.

References:

Laying the Foundations: Sharpe, E., Mair, H., & Yuen, F. (2016)

Community Capacity: Sharpe, E., Mair, H., & Yuen, F. (2016)

The Past and Future of Community Development Through Leisure: Sharpe, E., Mair, H., & Yuen, F. (2016)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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